Hepatitis E virus seroprevalence among blood donors in Jiangsu Province, East China.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is responsible for over 50% of acute viral hepatitis cases, and the blood transfusion route has emerged as a possible means of sporadic HEV infection. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HEV among blood donors in East China. METHODS: Blood samples were collected consecutively between January and June 2011 from 486 blood donors living in Jiangsu Province, East China. Anti-HEV IgG was tested by ELISA. RESULTS: One hundred and thirteen blood donors developed HEV IgG antibody, indicating the prevalence of HEV IgG seropositivity to be 23.3%. HEV IgG seropositivity was 25.3% (90/356) in the male group, significantly higher than that in the female group (17.7%, 23/130) (p<0.05). The donors who had donated more than 10 times had significantly higher HEV IgG seropositivity than the other groups (p<0.05). Furthermore, donors aged 50-55 years had significantly higher HEV IgG seropositivity than the other age groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We investigated HEV seroprevalence among blood donors in East China. Our data will help identify the risk factors for HEV infection and provide guidance on controlling the safety of blood transfusions in the clinical setting.